Some ways to dig up the past

There is an old lore among the seekers:

• Once on the net, Always on the net

Nothing is ever lost once it is put on the internet. However the problem is to dig it out from the depths. One simple, effective and often overlooked solution is the cache option a lot of search engines offer. They take snapshots of each page it examines and caches (stores) that version as a back-up. That option comes up with results of every search query. If the link is not alive simply click the cached link. Or you can simply type (for example)

http://google.com/search?q=cache:your required page

and there you have it.

To go to pages even older than google's cache visit the Internet Archive. They are building and maintaining a free and openly accessible online digital library and an archive of the web. Just go to their Wayback Machine and put in your website and see its various avatars over the years.

The Internet Archive also has an extensive library of texts audio and video and software. Go there search your favourite musician or band and be prepared to be surprised. These are non copyrighted either in the public domain or licensed under a license that allows redistribution, like Creative Commons.

If you are looking for long forgotten singers you might just find some mp3 there. You might be interested in some popular band whose works are definitely copyrighted. You may stumble upon some live concert recording.

They also have movies fallen out of copyright including some classics like Battleship Potemkin, Nosferatu and some Charlie Chaplin movies among others.

The texts collection includes digitized books from various libraries around the world as well as many special collections.

Go and see for yourself and explore.
Tell us what we do not know about digging the web.